If you haven't already set up a portfolio through an online brokerage account, you can turn to any of several Web sites that offer free trackers you can customize with your list of stock and fund holdings. For example, Kiplinger.com and Yahoo Finance contain basic tools that let you insert the number of shares you bought and at what price. The trackers then use slightly delayed stock quotes to update the value of each holding and your entire portfolio. On both sites, clicking on a stock leads you to a trove of information on the company, including recent news, his­torical share prices, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and, in Yahoo's case, mentions of the stock in blog postings.

For more bells and whistles, download MSN MoneyCentral's Portfolio Manager. Here, you create watch lists and multiple portfolios (you'll have to install a plug-in that runs with Internet Explorer, so it's available only for PCs). View your holdings using an array of measures, including market value, risk or the size of your position. The tracker also performs basic analysis on your investment allocation, performance and potential tax liability.

If you want to be notified when your stock crosses a particular price threshold, MSN and Yahoo will send you an e-mail or text-message alert. Both sites require you to set up an account for this service.

Step 2: Get a Sense of History

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